Morning journal and courier., 1887-08-10

| To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 l Trouvile is so different from what is ex- pected that it must be written about The Trouyille of French poets and painters is one thing; the actual Trouville quite another. l In the first place Trouville faces the north, | with a slight inclination towards the west Most summer breezes on both sides of the Atlantic blow from the south or tnereabouts Trouyille, therefore, is badly situated to be- gin with. Back of it, moreover, is high ! hill which effectual1y keeps off every south
 ern breeze which might be disposed to cheer l and comfort. In front of Trouville is vast extent of soft and disagreeable sand, with plenty of French pebbles in it. There is a 1 long reach of pebbles directly in front of this hotel. Two men are constantly at work trying to keep mp path through it so that the water can be reached by bathers. Every high tide their work Is undone and must be recommended. At high tide there are from two to four hundred feet of blistering sand between the sea and the TOW of villas and hotels which constitute new Trouville.- At low tide this distance is quadrupled and bathing is too far off to be taken. As the sand is soft the water is full of it, and as the shoals extend for miles there is no spot with in reach where the water is clean and pure If a lady were to go in without c net the rest of her summer would be passed in extracting sand from her hair. Still the French have a notion that the more sand in the water the more wholesome the dip. What they want is species of sea mud bath, and here they get it, for there is mud as we'll as sand The French pebble which appears at all the bath- ing places of the north of France is of flint It is of all sizes, and though it may have been crushed polished and dandled for aeons in the lap of waters it still preserves at least one sharp corner, and that corner is sure to be uppermost. To cut an American lady's shoe and foot all to pieces is one of it's favor ite amusements, and when stepped on with decision and weight the noise of it's injured creaking sets your teeth on edge. Please ac- tually chew, if you will, a bit of sand. Then
 you will realize the character and the power
 to torment of the French pebble. It is all
 over, coextensive with the French basin of the geologists; not confined to beaches but
 on every road and along every bywey. As
 to the actual bathing, it is very much as it
 is elsewhere. There is no such bathing as is
 represented in French prints. The women
 dress about as they do at home, except that
 their bathing trousers are longer and 1ooger,
 and that stockings are not worn. There is Q
 part of the beach reserved for ladies and
 children where no male is admitted except
 tie professional batner. So also is there a
 part reserved for men, where at any time
 they may bathe as they bathe at Newport be-
 tween one and two p. m. Everything appa-
 rently is conducted decently and in order
 Since the termination of the empire people
 do not come to Trouville to be vicious, but
 to rest and to be nicely amused
 The houses along the beach are so ugly
 that it is difficult to realize that they are
 French. The all pervading material is brick
 red brick and grey brick of the grey color of
 fire brick. On some houses there are pilas-
 ters of stucco, and in some timbers are i'm
 bedded in the surfaces in imitation of the Norman wooden houses of Lisieux The colors are dull and dreary. The two bricks do not harmonize and both look dirty. The wood is 8 very dark red or a very dark or ange. The houses look as if they were the abodes of disagreeable and unhappy peo. pie, and they must be, for there are only two of the lot that have flowers and shrub bery about or that seem in the least pleas ant and summery. The contrast with Os- tend is most striking. Ostend is brilliant as summer sunshine. This place is as dreary as November. Its houses should be in rows about the Place Louis XV or some other dreary Paris square.
 To the east of Trouvi1le is the river To- ques, and along the Toques for a way is old Trouville with it's narrow streets and it's fshermen's huts. But there is little to it and it's industries leaving. The To- ques at low tide is hardly wide enough for the wriggling of respectable American eel l On the other side of the Toques is Deau- vile, which the Due de Morny and his l crowd started in opposition to Trouville. | Here, moreover, they expected to make mil 1 lions. What it might have been had the | empire continued no one can say, but now it | looks as if it's villas, it chateaux, it's enor- nous hotels and it's immense Casino were 1ofk So,,k perfect picture of utter desolation. The l whole of it would make a capital peniten- | tiary. The threat of imprisonment in any one of it's edifces would deter the most | hardened criminal from the ightest crime. | If anyone wants 8 French chateau for a | mere song now is the time. The original | possessors are dead or gone. Everything is | in the hands of spectators, builders or f and everything is for sale at a | bargain. On the hill back of Trouville are | the chateaux and villas whose names recall | the glories, the scandals and the crimes of | the last empire. Le Chalet Cordier, La Villa l Jollois, La Villa Bagatelle and dozen others where the friends and the enemies of Napo- l eon III. met, sehemed and plotted and in- vented new pleasures and vices. They are all dull and dreary buildings, just like the buildings they overlook on the beach below It seems odd that such sombre building ,pirit should have pervaded. Could it have
 
 on the hill is owned and lived in by it's origi- nal proprietor or his descendants. And more han three quarters of them are for sale or o rent. Like dream that is passed are he glories of the Bonapartes, yet many Frenchman is turning anxious eyes to the title prince who awaits in Italy call to 'eturn and to ascend the throne ot his an- ,estors. The Casino, the supposed central point of the gaieties of the place, is as dull | md dreary building as the others; and is IS dreary within as it is without. To be oily in midsummer in room hung with the larkest of maroons is as impossible as it is ! o enjoy music seated on an iron chair in The Casino expects you to do both. The l eason must be fairly begun, yet there is lot laugh to be heard, lively child to ,e seen or Q fine dress to be criticised. Even Lies petits cheveaux" only attract anguidly. The handsomest thing about the 'lace by all odds is Mr. BigeloR, and the est thing to do is to get as near to him nd to MT. McLane as possible, and to lis en to the perfectly delicious and most thoroughly pure American talk that comes rom their lips. No money could be bet er invested than in the creating at home two chairs of American political history nd in inviting these gentlemen to take hem. Mir. McLane loves the past and raws from it lessons for the present and sdoubtable assurances for the future His aith in the permanency of our institutions
 glorious, and he talks it out in way nat makes you jingle with joyous patrio- sm. MT. Bigelow is more of the present. . Ie is brimming over with entertaining an- ,dotes of prominent personages. He is a 'hned and keen detector of motives and Y lost lucid propounder of political doctrines. [ pity that such men should not be ever pub ( ely serving the country they love so dearly ' nd understand so well. linear that Mr. Mo i ane is over seventy. Then his years are re- . !arkable, for they cannot have counted fifty those allotted to ordinary mortals. In size, some of his features and in certain facial l 2arkles he recalls Gladstone. Bigelow looks little like an Englishman until you are inn lediately in front of him.
 Yesterday was at Lisieux to see the origi- al Norman wood and brick houses from hich the Trouville architects drew their leas. What contrast When will artists arn to stop copying and imitatings A. Li- eux people built of the materials they had at and. They built the houses their fanaily exs ' anslons and their employments demanded, nd their purses permitted. Though adher- lg to utility they were not blind to beauty, hich was allowed life. Wherever it was ap- ropr1ate it did not interfere and was not su- af io c;, >f.1